We lost our immediate personification of Space when we lost our own Mike Space this week, who passed in his sleep in his new home in the Caribbean. He was recreating another chapter in his active and creative life with his soul mate Judi Space, off on the island paradise of Vieques.

When Mike and Judi moved up to the Lehigh Valley from Philly, he brought with him his love of folk music, art, good food and general large living, along with his hands-on skills as a mechanic. And it was his love of getting under the hood that made him invaluable as he began his career as a folk-music promoter, sound man, and radio DJ.

Personally, he was the right man for the big job of Artistic Director at Godfrey’s when he…

What about the 2009 partnership with the South Side Initiative and the Bethlehem Biopsy project with Britain’s Christian Nold? Were you lucky enough to have worked on any outsider art projects with Mr. Imagination? What about seeing some [ahem] interesting art exhibits in the galleries? Been to any odd ceremonies? Do you know of any alum who took the Raw Vision or any of the iterations of “Ecce Elvis: Elvis Studies as a Postmodernist Paradigm for the Academic Study of Religions” courses?

Students today may have come across the Secret Art Enclave if they’ve wandered in the woods of South Mountain.

They might have also seen or helped build the Chinese Bridge (above), or the Chinese Pavilion on the Greenway. Over the years, dozens of guest artists, lecturers and artists in residence have engaged students and the community through the visionary leadership of one faculty member.

It’s the end of an era. Yes, that’s a sentence that should be read with as much dramatic flair as possible. For many readers, too much institutional time has passed between some of the more infamous events born from the vision of one professor. For others readers, perhaps not enough.

The founder of the program which eventually became the idea generator for this weekly newsletter is “fading into the mist.” Dr. Norman Girardot’s no-cheese-tray retirement event will take place tomorrow, December 5 from 3:30-6:30 PM, in Zoellner Arts Center, Lower Gallery. There will be testimony from members of the Religion Studies Department and other partners in crime. Find out some of the legendary stories of one infamous faculty member.

(Pictured: Silagh White and Norman Girardot as they were…. back in the day)